I was impressed by this area of grassland on Mungrisdale Common. It is essentially what we call in Physics an inclined plane. On the 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map it goes up 50 metres of contours in 14mm. On this scale, 40mm = 1km. Now the catch is that the map gives the horizontal distance, the distance that would be some way underground from where I took my pictures. So you get a right angled triangle with a base that is 14/40 of 1km = 350m. The height is 50m. The angle above vertical is arctan(50/350) = 8 degrees. The component of acceleration due to gravity down the slope is thus 9.81*sin(8) = 1.4m/s/s. I've heard that described as "dilute gravity"!
